ir hearths for another twelve
months. Besides mountains, there were evidently other localities where
sacrifices and the ritual of Sun-worship were observed, and which
received appropriate names in accordance with their character as sacred
places. Some of these names still survive, as for instance:--

_Ard-an-teine_--The light of the fire.

_Craig-an-teine_--The rock of the fire.

_Auch-an-teine_--The field of the fire.

_Tillie-bet-teine_--The knoll of the fire; and so through a great many
other names of places we find traces of the Baal and fire worship. So
widespread and numerous are the names which recall this ritual, that we
can see quite clearly that the spirit of their religion thoroughly
dominated the people. In Ireland, at Beltane, the Pagan Kings are said
to have convoked the people for State purposes. The last of these
heathen kings convoked a grand assembly of the nation to meet with him
on _Tara_, at the feast of Beltane, which the old chroniclers say was
the principal feast of the year.

Respecting this feast, Dr. Jamieson says, introducing a quotation from
O'Brien, "_Ignis Bei Dei Aseatica ea lineheil_, or May-day, so called
from large fires which the Druids were used to light on the summits of
the highest hills, into which they drove four-footed beasts, using
certain ceremonies to expiate for the sins of the people. The Pagan
ceremony of lighting these fires in honour of the Asiatic god Belus gave
its name to the entire month of May, which to this day is called
_Me-na-bealtine_, in the Irish, _Dor Keating_." He says again, speaking
of these fires of _Baal_, that the cattle were driven through them and
not sacrificed, the chief design being to avert contagious disorders
from them for the year. And quoting from an ancient glossary, O'Brien
says, "The Druids lighted two solemn fires every year, and drove all
four-footed beasts through them, in order to preserve them from
contagious distempers during the current year." I am inclined to think
that these notices describe a sort of modified or Christianized Beltane,
that driving the cattle through the fire was a substitute for the older
form of sacrificing cattle to the sun. Until very lately in different
parts of Ireland, it was the common practice to kindle fires in milking
yards on the first day of May, and then men, women, and children leaped
through them, and the cattle were driven through in order to avert evil
influences. They were also in the habit